Cape Playhouse kicks off season with 'Art'

“Art” is a comedy about male friendship from French playwright Yasmina Reza and stars David Andrew Macdonald, who spent some summers as a child on the South Shore.

By R. Scott Reedy/For The Patriot Ledger

Actor David Andrew Macdonald, who plays Serge in the production of “Art” at the Cape Playhouse in Dennis, is often busy with roles on Broadway, in regional theaters around the country, and on television.

When he does have some downtime, Macdonald can usually be found in the Adirondack Mountains, putting to good use a particular skill he learned during childhood summers spent on the South Shore.

“As a young boy, I spent some summers in Scituate, where I could usually be found diving off what my mother called the ‘biggest pebble in town.’ I became a great rock runner by necessity,” Macdonald explained by phone recently while aboard a commuter train to Manhattan.

“Now, when I hike steep, rocky trails in the Adirondacks and I come down, hopping from rock to rock, I know that all that comes from unconscious muscle memory and the rocky beaches of Scituate,” he said while describing his family’s long connection to the town. “My late mother, Margaret Warnke Macdonald, was born in Webster and brought up in Marlboro, but she spent summers with relatives in Scituate. She always said she was there ‘from the day school ended until the day before school started.’”

Macdonald also spent some of his elementary-school summers in Wellfleet, and he said he is happy to again be visiting areas he has so many good memories of.

He lives in New Jersey with his fiancée, actress Monette Magrath, and their 2-year-old daughter, Finley Fay Margaret Macdonald. They are with him in Dennis, making new memories.

“Art” runs through June 24. The production, a Cape Playhouse premiere, opened the playhouse’s season.

“The building was originally a Unitarian Universalist meetinghouse, so it’s literally and figuratively like working in a church,” Macdonald said.

Two years ago, Macdonald co-starred with Magrath in “Murder by Misadventure,” also at the Cape Playhouse.

“Art” is a comedy about male friendship from French playwright Yasmina Reza. It won the 1998 Tony Award for Best Play.

“This is an interesting play on several levels,” said Macdonald, a graduate of the Juilliard School. “It’s about the meaning of art. When my character, a collector of modern art, purchases a white canvas adorned with only a few white lines, it creates tension between him and two of his longtime friends.

“What Reza is getting at is relationships, especially among people in mid-life crisis. It’s really a look at what affects us at different stages of life. Serge and his two friends, Marc (David Beach) and Yvan (Eddie Korbich), don’t agree on what constitutes art, but when that Pandora’s Box is opened, you see the other challenges facing these men.

“I think Serge is going through a phase of life represented by this piece of art. It reveals things about his relationship with Marc and theirs with Yvan. They end up scarring what they imagined their relationship to be.

“It’s like lifting weights, though. To a certain extent, you damage the tissue in order to make it stronger. The wounds the men inflict on each other can ultimately make their relationships stronger.”

Macdonald, a Washington, D.C., native, also has a son, Ian, 15, and a daughter, Elena, 13, from his marriage to Nicolette Nicola. He said he believes “Art” is entertaining on more than one level.

“Reza’s writing about the nature of humanity is just wonderful. Christopher Hampton’s translation is perfect, too. It makes this a true American play. And it’s also a great deal of fun, because the audience can roll its eyes at these characters and, at the same time, in many ways, really relate to them.”

Macdonald’s Broadway credits include 2014’s “Rocky: The Musical,” the 2015 revival of “Skylight,” and a two-year stint in “Mamma Mia!” Although he has made guest appearances on TV series including “Elementary,” “Person of Interest,” “The Black List,” “Law & Order” and “Sex and the City,” he may be best known for his 10-year run as Prince Edmund Winslow on “Guiding Light,” which went off the air in 2009. He also appeared in other daytime soap operas.

“One of the most flattering things that ever happened to me in my career came when I got a call from the casting director for ‘Another World.’ He said, ‘I’m casting a 221-year-old facially deformed time-traveling scientific genius, and I don’t know anyone else, on either coast, who can pull it off,’” Macdonald recalled with a hearty laugh. “I played that part for seven months. In its day, the storyline was voted one of the most ridiculous by the fans, but I loved every minute of it.”ART By Yasmina Reza. At the Cape Playhouse, 820 Main St., Route 6A, Dennis. $35 and up. 508-385-3911, www.CapePlayhouse.com